Chapter Nine

After his failed meeting with the Chads, Walker had grabbed a late flight to the Cape. But before leaving, he’d taken a detour to his loft to check out the firm’s financials. He’d known something was going on with the Chads but had stayed in his lane in the business and concentrated on the ‘hands-on’ security side, not getting involved with administration and bookkeeping before. But it was time to figure out what was happening.

It had taken a few hours to reveal the whole scheme, but with the help of a ghost program Tank had created, he’d gone over WLK’s bank records. The Chads probably believed they were criminal masterminds. However, within twenty minutes, he’d found the first discrepancy. Once he’d uncovered enough evidence to bury them in the court system for years, he’d taken off for the airport. If he’d stayed in the city much longer, he would undoubtedly have hunted the Chads down and killed them with his bare hands.

A little past midnight, Walker had arrived at the house. Expecting Ashe to be asleep, he’d headed to the garage. He would have made it for dinner, but he’d had his homework to do, thanks to his partners. Instantly restless, he’d gone to his grandmother’s studio. Frozen archives of her life littered the room. Old art projects and supplies ate up the space. Unable to shake the negative energy around him, he’d grabbed a box and gone to work. He should have done it years ago, but he’d come up with one excuse after another to avoid immersing himself in her space.

The hour he’d spent categorizing her art had allowed memories to surface he’d thought he’d buried with her.

Since pure, unadulterated lust was clouding his judgment, he concluded that he could no longer protect Ashe. By the time he’d made up his mind about her case, she’d walked into the house.

Mist from the ocean water molded her robe around the contours of her sexy body. No bra, check. Dewy skin, check, check. Walker’s gaze ultimately landed on the woman’s ridiculously gorgeous face. The last of his flimsy resolve unraveled.

Positive that he should allow sleeping dogs to lie, he took a shot anyway and shared his true feelings. Of course, the last thing he’d anticipated was laughter.

“This is great for my ego,” he muttered.

“Sorry,” Ashe said. “I thought you wanted…” She started up again, laughing herself into hiccups.

“Maybe we’re looking at this a bit differently. I can no longer protect you because I—”

“Want to?” she poked at him.

“Huh? I never said—” Stunned at how fast he’d become snared in her lawyerly web, he stood in front of her, speechless.

“Do what to me?” she asked while inching her way closer to him.

“Um, uh… Shit.” Caught between that gray area of regret and cards on the table, he took in her light scent of honey and cream. Unable to resist his attraction for a second longer, he closed the space left between them. “Everything. I want to do everything to you. But once again it’s a conflict of interest for us to go forward with—”

The sweet feel of her lips moving against his instantly silenced his words. He grabbed her waist and pulled her to his body, mildly annoyed that he hadn’t kissed her first. Sucking on her lower lip, he knew without a shadow of a doubt that this couldn’t satisfy him.

Ashe leaned away from their embrace. The absence of her beautiful lips forced out a groan.

“We’re adults, Walker Knight, and at the present moment, I see no danger. If staying among the retired seniors until we solve the mystery of my partner’s death is the best we can do, then I’ll take it.”

“Don’t forget someone is still hunting you, counselor. I’d like to keep your pretty little neck safe.”

“So you can do what to it?” This time she teased him with a playful smile.

“Exactly what I told you before,” Walker whispered close to her mouth. He picked her up and set her down on the rock-and-roll table. “Everything.” Her slip of a robe hiked farther up her leg.

Since he wanted to explore every part of her, he started with the smooth skin on her thigh and worked his way under the silk fabric.

“You’re so beautiful.” He moaned. Walker sought out her tongue and moved his hand onto her hip, surprised to find that she was wearing nothing under the silky fabric. “Ms. Fancy Pants lawyer wears none.” He nipped at her lower lip before she burst into a peal of laughter.

“It’s late and I was just— Oh hell, panties are uncomfortable.”

As he cupped her ass, he pulled her into the hard bulge in the front of his pants. “I think that’s about the sexiest thing anybody has ever told me.” Working his way around to the front of her robe, he sought out her pussy lips. He needed to touch her breasts and feast on her, but something in him wanted to keep her off balance.

Walker moved his hand to her clit but kept his focus on her face. When he touched her, she took a sharp breath. He wanted to lose himself in the feel of her full lips. However, he needed to see her face before he dipped inside her.

Wet and sexy. Tapping her clit, he slipped into her pussy with his middle finger. He kept the same rhythm until he felt her contract around him. Only after she dropped her head back with a moan did he feel he’d achieved his goal.

He took in the pretty picture of Ashe Marcille, legs splayed and out of breath. Untying her robe, he exposed her full, round breasts, and the throb in his pants became ten times worse. Walker thumbed her nipples and took possession of her lips. He basked in that touchdown moment as if he’d scored the head cheerleader.

“I wanted to do this the first time I saw you,” he huffed into her mouth.

“Undress me on top of a priceless work of art?”

“Exactly.” He ducked his head to suck her perfect nipple. Before Walker made fast friends with her right breast, he tickled the bud of her left with his tongue. Undone by her moans, he struggled with the button on his pants. She helped him to push them past his ass.

He took his pulsating cock in hand, shoving it into her with a grunt.

“Fuuuck!” she screamed.

Walker drove in and out of Ashe’s pussy. Her walls choked his cock. He palmed her breast and teased her beautiful lips. Increasing his speed slightly, he paced himself. For over a month he hadn’t been able to think about anything else but her. Thrusting into Ashe, he waited for her breath to grow shallow.

A little pant turned into a moan then a full-out ragged squeal. As she dropped her head back, he sucked on her neck and finally let himself go.

 

* * * *

 

The temperature dropped enough for Walker to build a fire. They sat in relative silence on the floor across from one another. Wrapped in a sheet, Ashe enjoyed the heat from the crackling orange flames.

“Roger Corman movies 1960s pinup,” he said while he massaged her foot.

Her partner had had different descriptions for the male species. In a lame attempt to soften her image, her partner C.T. had tried to tone down her fierce reputation by calling them by candy names. Of course, reducing men to Willy Wonka treats did nothing for her partner’s domineering reputation.

To Ashe’s delight, she’d found the perfect M&M Peanut in the form of Walker Knight. Hard on the outside, deliciously sweet on the inside. “What?”

“The way you look. When we first met, it was sexy Wall Street powerhouse,” he admitted.

“And now?”

“Barbarella bad ass.”

“Color me surprised.” She laughed. “I thought you were the strong, silent type.”

“And now?”

“Hot nerd.” When he locked eyes with her, Ashe’s heart beat faster. He kissed the top of her foot.

“I think my partners, Chad and Dan, are up to something.” There was a quick shift in his mood. The dreamy softness didn’t totally vanish, but it changed his already-chiseled features. “They took a contract with your firm.”

“Coincidence?” she asked, biting back a moan. He’d hit the point in her foot that damn near made her come for the third time that night.

He winked at her and continued his sweet torture on her body. “No. I think it’s more sinister than that. My silent partner—”

“Whoa! Another partner and he’s silent, which means the other two probably don’t know about him.”

Walker chuckled. “The company would be dissolved instantly if they did. Tank bought majority shares years ago. He thinks it would be a good idea for us to hold an engagement dinner to feel the other two out.”

“Seems dicey.”

“We don’t have much to go on. Maybe this will be a ‘cards on the table’ type of moment.”

With a small smile, he set her foot down and made his way towards her waist. Slipping the sheet off her, he kissed a trail to her stomach and stopped at her breast.

“What happened between you and J8?” she asked.

“I don’t work with people I don’t trust,” he murmured before he took her nipple into his mouth and sucked, then released it and said, “Plain and simple.”

“But your partners at WLK—”

“Are stupid, which is different. J8 is dangerous.”

Distracted by the tingles of heat that worked throughout her body, she noted how he hadn’t really answered the question. Focused on her third orgasm of the day, she decided to table the discussion for later.